We’re in the Agriblogging and Farm Podcasting workshop.
Look at these shiny happy people. Are we having fun yet?
Agriblogging and Farm Podcasting Workshop
Hello from Portland and the Ag Media Summit. I’m here in the Portland Hilton, Galleria North room ready to start another workshop on how to blog and podcast.
I’ll probably post during the presentation too and have a summary of how it went for you later.
Rocking With Quasimojo
After getting back to the Portland Hilton (and air conditioning) from our river cruise it was party time. Wait a minute. What were we doing on the boat?
We didn’t have the Quasimojo Band on the boat. So I guess you could say the party continued after we got back and with the band.
If you’ve never seen the band play now’s your chance: 
Quasimojo Band (3 min wmv)
Andy Markwart Horizon Award
In honor of Andy Markwart, former editor of The Furrow, beloved member of the Quasimojo Band and AAEA, who passed away earlier this year, John Deere is creating and supporting the Andy Markwart Horizon Award. The idea is to create a fund over the next couple years from which scholarships can be awarded to students so they can attend either the Ag Media Summit or an international event like the IFAJ Congress.
Here at the AMS you can buy raffle tickets to show your support for the program.
Photographic Moments On The River
I wish I had the camera Lisa Perrin, Holstein Association USA, has. On our river cruise we had lots of opportunity for taking some great photos.
Sometimes you get your picture taken, taking a picture. I’ve got lots more from the cruise and plan to have an end-of-the-event online photo album for all of them.
PIF Happens To All Of Us
I was just minding my own business when Larry Dreiling, High Plains Journal, comes up and says, “Give me $20.” Say what?
I guess PIF just happens. For $20 I got a nice pack of note cards to support AAEA’s Professional Improvement Foundation.
You can get yours from any board member or through the AAEA office.
Boarding The Portland Spirit
It’s a good thing we had a big boat for our dinner cruise. I don’t know how many people we had on board but it seemed like a lot.
Attendence looks excellent at this year’s Ag Media Summit. Our kickoff event was a cruise on board the Portland Spirit.
We travelled for hours and enjoyed great food, and wonderful fellowship.
Fountain Fun In The Sun
What do you do when it’s about 100 degrees out and there’s a water fountain you can get into? You jump into it.
That’s what these kids (mostly kids) were doing in downtown Portland on Sunday afternoon. We had to walk past this fountain on our way to the Portland Spirit riverboat for our dinner cruise.
The kids were getting into the fountain as you can see here: Fountain Fun (15 sec wmv)
BASF Brings Joy To The Media
Moving up to gold sponsorship this year at the Agricultural Media Summit is BASF. Gold means sponsoring a lot of things. In this week’s program I interviewed BASF Communications Manager, Joy Watson, to learn what they’re doing and why.
Besides the Media Room, Joy says they’re sponsoring a reception and have a booth in the Info Expo. To help get the word out to ag media, the latest episode of the BASF Ag Media Update (podcast) was an audio invitation to visit the media room and stop by their booth and talk about the latest products from BASF. I heard the invitation on my iPod!
Joy also talks about their media-focused website, AgMediaCentral.
Pictured here outside the Media Room is (l-r) Me, Dan Muys, Quarry Communications and Joy Watson. The room has already seen some activity as things get closer to the kickoff here in Portland.
Listen here: 
ZimmCast 77 (11 min MP3)
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes.
Wheat Straw Fuel Lowers Heating Costs
An industrial equipment manufacturer in Manitoba expects to save about 50 thousand dollars a year in heating costs by switching from natural gas to waste wheat straw fuel.
In 1999, Vidir Machine replaced the coal fired heating system at its Arborg, Manitoba manufacturing plant with a three million BTU wheat straw fueled heating system and the company is now installing a smaller one million BTU unit at its manufacturing plant at Morris.
The greenhouse gas displacement system, developed by Vidir Biomass Systems, relies on primary combustion followed by secondary combustion to get a complete burn. Read More